TESTING FREE ACCESS TO INFORMATION LAW 544/2001 REPORT Revised version “A person’s right of acces to any information of public interest cannot be restricted.” Art. 31 (1), Romanian Constitution TESTING FREE ACCESS TO INFORMATION LAW 544/2001 REPORT This report has been elaborated within the project “Testing Free Acces to Information (Law 544/2001)” that took place during December 2002 - December 2003 and was coordinated by Asociaþia Pro Democraþia in partnership with Center for Institutional Reform for the Informal Sector (IRIS). This publication was made possible through support provided by World Learning through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) - Mission to Romania, under terms of Grant Agreement No. 186-A- 00-00-00113 (01). The opinions expressed here in are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Learning or United States Agency for International Development. The leadership of Asociaþia Pro Democraþia thanks to all APD Clubs that were involved in this project and most of all to the volunteers that contributed to the monitoring process addressing requests to the authorities and public institutions that were monitored according to the Law 544/2001. Both the publications and excerpts of it cannot be copied without the permission of Asociaþia Pro Democraþia. Translators: Ana-Maria Moºneagu and Cora Moþoc Published Bucharest Asociaþia Pro Democraþia 45, Unirii Blvd., bl. E3, sc. 3, et. 6, ap. 76 Sector 3, Bucharest, cod 030 824 Tel.: (+4021) 327 77 57; 327 77 36 Tel./fax: (+4021) 321 67 44 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.apd.ro Table of contents I. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 5 II. Provisions of the Law whose enforcement was monitored............................................................. 6 II.1. Founding a Public Relations Bureau or appointing a person responsible to handle public interest information according to the Law 544/2001 .......................................................................................... 6 II.2. The manner in which public authorities answer public information requests according to their types ................................................................................................................................................... 6 III. Public Authorities and Institutions that were monitored................................................................. 9 III.1. Public institutions and authorities where the enforcement of Article 4 of the Law 544 was tested ... 9 III.2. Public institutions and authorities where the promptness and the capacity to offer public interest information was tested ......................................................................................................................... 11 IV. The methodology used in the monitoring process .......................................................................... 12 IV.1. The methodology used for testing the enforcement of Article 4 of the Law...................................... 12 IV.2. The methodology used for testing the willingness and capability to offer public interest information according to Law 544/2001 ............................................................................................... 12 V. Information obtained and conclusions resulted from the monitoring process ............................. 13 V.1. Enforcement of Article 4 of the Law 544/2001 ................................................................................ 13 V.2. The promptness and the capacity of public institutions and authorities to offer public interest information according to the Law 544/2001- the situation at national level ............................................ 17 V.3. The results of the monitoring of central public institutions and authorities....................................... 22 V.4. The results of the monitoring of institutions and authorities in development region no. 1 (North- East) ................................................................................................................................... 24 V.5. The results of the monitoring of institutions and authorities in development region no. 2 (South- East) .................................................................................................................................... 26 V.6. The results of the monitoring of institutions and authorities in development region no. 3 (South) .... 28 V.7. The results of the monitoring of institutions and authorities in development region no. 4 (South- West) .................................................................................................................................................. 30 V.8. The results of the monitoring of institutions and authorities in development region no. 5 (West) ..... 32 V.9. The results of the monitoring of institutions and authorities in development region no. 6 (North- West) ................................................................................................................................................... 34 V.10. The results of the monitoring of institutions and authorities in development region no. (Center) .. 36 V.11. The results of the monitoring of institutions and authorities in development region no. 8 (Ilfov County and Bucharest Municipality) .................................................................................................... 37 | 3 | TESTING FREE ACCESS TO INFORMATION LAW 544/2001 REPORT VI. Conclusions about the problems identified that are determined by the wording of the Law ........ 40 VI.1. Documents versus information .................................................................................................... 40 VI.2. Public institutions and authorities the Law refers to ...................................................................... 40 VI.3. The cost for the copying services ................................................................................................. 40 VI.4. Complaints to the solicitor's office, compulsory preceded or not, by an administrative complaint .. 41 Annexes: Annex 1 - Variables list for activities 1 and 2 .......................................................................................... 42 Annex 2 - Response offered by the Ministry of Health and Family to request #5 .................................... 68 Annex 3 - Response offered by the Romanian Presidency to request #2 .............................................. 68 Annex 4 - Response offered by the Romanian Presidency to request #3 .............................................. 69 Annex 5 - Response offered by the Citiy Hall of Bacau Municipality to request #3 and #4 ...................... 69 Annex 6 - Response offered by the Citiy Hall of Bacau Municipality to request #8 .................................. 70 Annex 7 - Response offered by the General Direction of Labour and social Solidarity Constanta to request #1 ........................................................................................................................................... 70 Annex 8 - Response offered by the City Hall of Constanta Municipality to request #6 ............................ 71 Annex 9 - Request adresses to the City Hall of Alexandria Municipality and the response offered by the institution (request #6) ......................................................................................................................... 71 Annex 10 - Response offered by the City Hall of Craiova Municipality to request #8 .............................. 73 Annex 11 - Response offered by the General Direction of Public Finances Cluj-Napoca to request #2 .. 73 Annex 12 - Response offesred by the City Hall District 4 to request #6 .................................................. 74 Annex 13 - Response offesred by the City Hall District 6 to request #2 .................................................. 75 Annex 14 - Response offered by the General Direction of Public Finances Bucharest to request #1 ...... 75 Annex 15 - Response offered by the Autonomous Administration for the Distribution of Heath Bucharest to request #5 ....................................................................................................................... 76 | 4 | I. Introduction The passing of the Law 544/2001 on free access to public interest information is considered to be one of the greatest accomplishments of the past years, in what concerns transparency of public institutions, control of the state institutions by the civil society and, implicitly, consolidation of democracy. The passing of this Law might have even created the premises for Article 31 of the Romanian Constitution on the right of citizens to access public information to actually be observed. Unfortunately, time has proven that the Law in itself is not sufficient in order to make things change in this respect. Both reports published by NGOs working in the field of democracy and human rights (the Association for Protecting Human Rights- Helsinki Committee, the Academic Society in Romania, Transparency Romania, etc) and accounts of journalists in the local or central mass-media reveal the fact that things are not as they should be. The actual implementation of the Law is hindered by the fact that the provisions of the Law are not familiar to the public institutions. Due to this state of things, these institutions have serious management problems. On the other hand,